Video Artwork

from the start of my journey working in film and video, I’ve spent a lot of my time experimenting and creating my own work. I love workshopping ideas I’ve had with a view to develop further in the future.

I like to treat video in the same way as any other physical material that can be pulled apart and stuck back together - and I really love trying to make things work that shouldn’t. I tend to work quickly with what I have around me and so lots of bits tend to have a raw aesthetic which I’ve learnt to embrace.

Through doing this I’ve gained a good grasp of Stop frame animation, green screen, basic puppetry and Adobe After Effects.

‘More Change’ This Is The Kit

This is a music video that I made at home, imagining the interactions between everyday objects. I used a mixture of puppetry, stop frame animation and some After Effects work to bring it all together. It was Really fun getting neighbours involved to provide the facial expressions.

‘Violet’ - Ross Jennings

This is a very colourful eclectic piece for an old friend - who was kind enough to give me so much creative freedom. I had a lot of fun dreaming up different animation ideas for each part of the track - lots of cutting and sticking and some very DIY rostrum camera set ups in my loft.

The Commute

This piece is made from bits I shot out of the train window during my journeys from Sussex into London. I even made this mainly on the train as well to pass the time. Some extra elements were shot on a small green screen in my kitchen to add more life to the layers, and the two passengers were shot on a large green screen in the studio.

DWYD

These are all the different compositions I created for a music video - they are made from brightly coloured paint applied to the artist’s face and then separated and rearranged in Premier Pro to make abstracted new faces.

Dolphoids

These Dolphin like creatures are part of a larger ongoing project. They are made from separate household objects that I filmed on a green screen and then arranged in After Effects. I then placed them in 3D space to give them some depth as they swam together.

Nut Choir

These little Nut singers are made from a Christmas nut selection bag which were then filmed individually on a green screen. I really enjoyed making their outfits! I filmed myself singing and then puppeteered them to match. I then mapped on the eyes and mouths.

20/20 Global

I was asked to provide visuals for a 30 minute mix by Deft (electronic music producer) and the record label 20/20 for one of their popular live streams during Covid. Really delved into some old hard drives for this and used Arkaos Grand GV live video mixing software to breathe some new life into older tests.

Xmas 2021

I was experimenting with Google’s ‘Just a line’ AR app on the i phone, and thought it would be great to use for the annual Christmas Video I try and make.

Fraction Man (test)

This is an experiment in extreme masking in After Effects. I masked the same footage in a number of different ways and then re layered it all with added drop shadows to add some depth.

Magnetic Flowers

I found this learning activity / toy in a table top sale and instantly thought I could do something with it. I like the limitation of the shapes. The final result felt quite static so I tried to give it a handheld feel by tracking and linking the final animation to some handheld footage.

Stackman (test)

This is an experiment in adjusting the severity of the chroma key in After Effects. The same footage has been layered up but each one slightly more eroded than the one underneath.

Shipyardshards (test)

Here I have been experimenting with different blending modes on some footage I shot at a remote ship yard in China. The similar lateral motion of the stabilised camera has made for some interesting environment combinations.

Facemutts (test)

I made an orbiting camera rig which was attached to the ceiling and placed my head inside it. I then used various combinations of digital mirrors to create different rotating facial constructions.

Handworm

This was all born out of finding a fake eye and teasing my daughter with a hand snake - so I filmed it and took it to another level. I enjoyed making the sound design on this just as much as the visuals.

Networking

This was obviously made during the lockdown - particularly when I was isolating on my own in the spare room - so I tried to use my time productively.

Gunshow

I found some plastic guns I had filmed a few years previously which had been shot in front of green screen and I had moved them in time with some music. I used mirrors and experimented with 3D space and cameras in After effects to float between them.

A Helping Hand

This is more of a serious attempt at stop frame animation for my yearly Christmas project. I loved the whole process of story boarding and trying to make little bits of set.

Garden Mobile

This is just an experiment in splitting up an object into its colours (a Garden wind thingy) and putting them back together again.

Vegitools

I had filmed lots of objects on a piece of glass suspended over a green screen on the floor. The idea was to make some physical transitions that could be used of a live stream cooking show that I was developing. After a while trying out different combinations it just took on a life of its own.

Finsbury Funk (test)

This is a test in using a dolly zoom technique but here I did it with stop frame and added camera rotation. I thought it would be interesting to try and combine lots of dolly zooms to explore a similar space.

Submarine Dream (test)

This is made from some camera tests I made with the 24mm Probe lens. The objects are tiny and i used a small slider. I then used blending modes to combine the matching movements.

Housecrunch (test)

This involved strapping 2 cameras together and filming the same thing but with different focus lengths. One camera is fixed and the other has a zoom lens. It’s on old test but I like it.

Joris Bonson

This is a little nod to the remix videos by cassette boy. Another Isolation distraction.

Window Shocking

Our Neighbourhood goes in on Halloween and so I made some projections to throw onto the side of a house. I filmed loads of bits in the living room on 2 level green screen so that I could create the effect of things spilling over the window sill.

Rivets (test)

This is a complicated test which involved a lot of guess work - I had an idea that objects could puncture or be shared between two different scenes with the subject being able to play around with the space around them.

ADR Drum Mapping (test)

Some crude tests for mapping cylindrical objects onto a drum kit for a Band. I filmed all sorts of rotating things like beer cans, biscuit packets, toilet rolls and toy car wheels.

Blurrb (test)

I test using slow shutter speed photography and stopframe camera moves to create an odd frozen in time / motion blur combination.

Flakes Christmas 2019

I was making snowflakes with my daughter and I had the idea that the shapes within them could morph from one pattern to another. This involved lots of cutting out, and then filming on glass suspended over a green screen - another Christmas video

Crabdad

Some silly GO PRO work with my daughter. When I watched the footage back I thought it resembled a first person video game so I added the scores.

4D Child (test)

This is a test using a mixture of blending modes and the light in After Effects being added to the same footage which has then been stacked up and staggered.

Real Roots Radio Ident

This is an Ident for a radio show where I hand painted and then animated the scrolling text. this could have easily been done with an effect but I liked doing it.

Actual Footage of Covid 19

These virus creatures were made from the hard reflection of a bathroom mirror creating a strong hand shadow. I then used After Effects mirrors and layering. Then they were put into 3D space and a camera applied to give the feel of being in the microscopic world.

Worms World (test)

A crude test using a Go Pro stuck on the end of a cardboard tube then placed inside a bigger tube and shooting through it. I then put some of my friend’s puppets in front of a green screen and filmed lots of bits which when layered and mirrored becomes quite strange.

Everlasting Mince Pie

Another Christmas film - mince pie grows out of a plate and then gets taken - It works as a loop on Instagram.

Panablur (test)

This is my take on something similar to the 'slit scan' effect. It was made by saving hundreds of advancing stills from the original video and making each one a sliver which are left on screen successively. I’m sure there is now a plug in or an app to do this, but there wasn't at the time which led to this experiment - which I still think has a unique quality.

The Pimpler (test)

Stupid fun in a green suit with a welder’s helmet and apron. I replaced the green with close ups of my arm hair so the guy looks naked and a bit gross. I was also testing shooting in 4K (this is on a very old GO PRO) and doing zooms in post